Didn't expect this response in the comments when I wrote the article. I'm 99% certain Smedley was just referencing Dark Souls because it's currently considered the yardstick for tough games, and he was using it to prove a point that H1Z1 will be difficult.

It's the same as somebody growing a new chilli pepper and saying "Try this, Naga's are for wimps" - nobody REALLY thinks a Naga chilli is for wimps, but it would sure help you make your point a...

Agreed on both fronts. While it won't effect game design, limbs flying everywhere is pretty much expected from anything zombie. It adds that extra layer of gruesome mortality to the survival.

Also, lots of moral dramas in the zombie genre come from humans enjoying cutting zombies apart and torturing them. When Smedley mentioned playable zombies I imagined a player coming back as a zombie, only for another player to chop off their limbs like Michonne in TWD and use them f...

One of my favourite franchises from the Xbox 360, a great trilogy with a story that holds way more potential than they dared explore. Fingers crossed this takes place during E-Day with a young Fenix, Dom and Cole

Good spot, he was talking about the combination of behaviours and animations. While the article on the Ubiblog actually groups this all under "animation" because of how it links together, I've tweaked the text accordingly for clarity.

I agree. There's an argument that pricing shouldn't factor into a review, but it definitely should when the play time is so short IMO. I'm not sure whether the fact review units come free helped Ground Zeroes with its scores or not, but as a consumer I'm not happy with the prospect of paying full whack for a demo.

Cool write up! I don't agree that the open world is a downside though.

I also wrote a completely in-depth look at Batman: Arkham Knight and discuss the prospects of the story, its writers, and why the open-world and Batmobile are ultimately necassary http://n4g.com/news/1468191...